And, my Lorde, do I hate it. People's inexplicable need for celebrity drama has created an ecosystem around videos about said drama. This isn't new, but it's gotten a lot worse since generative AI has become so accessible. Between fake celebrity news and right-wing misinformation hubs, I've had to tell YouTube to stop recommending me so many channels at this point.
These celebrity videos are a particular kind of fake that I have a bad feeling about. You know those tabloids you see while you're waiting in line at the grocery store that emblazon "Some Celebrity Did Some Crazy Thing!" and the like in big bold text? They're bad, sure, but at least they tend to show real photos that they then purposefully misinterpret for salaciousness ⸺ in large part, I'm sure, because of libel laws. AI and self-publishing lets these tabloid-esque videos go further: The very situations they describe did not happen. The videos are wholly fabricated from top to bottom.
It's "fake news" in celebrity format. For instance(s)… No, Clint Eastwood did not have an "explosive" argument with Joy Behar on The View and walk off set. No, Rachel Zegler did not get into various "epic" legal battles with the creators of South Park. These things did not happen! But if you just casually browse YouTube with low media intelligence, with no eye for AI and no idea what it's capable of, you'll see these things and believe them. I know this because it's plainly visible in the comment sections of these videos. There's a disturbing number of people therein seeing a fanciful story that aligns with their preexisting biases and accepting it as truth.
It's fan fiction of the dumbest kind, written, rendered, and narrated by AI in minutes, trawling for clicks and views from the media illiterate, and presenting entirely made-up situations as reality. It's slop for profit, some of which is no doubt coming out of India, Nigeria, Russia, etc. ⸺ the same places most MAGA Twitter accounts are actually from and where getting paid in USD offers a favorable exchange rate. And it's certainly not limited to YouTube; all of social media is increasingly awash in it. Clickbait sells, and AI offers a quick and endless supply of it.
I'm not going to embed or link to any of these videos here because, well, fuck 'em. If I'm getting recommended this garbage when it's unrelated to the types of things I go to YouTube for, I'm sure lots of people get videos like this shoved into their face every single day. YouTube doesn't care that's it's all misinformation; all they care is that you're there and watching, getting ads shoved in your face, and clicking on other videos. Your time is finite and therefore has value, and they want you to use it on YouTube no matter what. The only pushback you have as a viewer is to tell YouTube not to recommend a channel that does this crap. Over time you build up your recommendations' "immune system" of sorts.
What worries me, however, is not fake videos about celebrities. Much scarier is the deeper notion that far too many people can't (or, worse, won't) recognize fake videos as fake. Bad actors can control the narrative not just by saying "that thing that happened didn't happen that way you heard" but by showing an altered version that matches their statements. If it's Your Guy making the claims, how likely are you to recognize that you're being manipulated and lied to? Not particularly likely, I'd imagine, and that's scary.
The country is currently embroiled in some Serious Shit™ with ICE acting as mercenary thugs in various Democrat-voting areas around the country. The Trump administration has no qualms with using AI to lie to the country and dog-whistle (more like dog-bullhorn) racist bullshit to its moronic fans and followers. Meanwhile, Trump billionaire loyalists like Bezos are destroying journalistic institutions from the inside out. It's like we're at the start of the dumbest yet most dangerous revolution: one where alternate realities can be spun up out of nothing and no one can tell truth from lies.
If that sounds familiar it's because it's the kind of thing that's been the subject of dystopian stories for decades. From Nineteen Eighty-Four to the last two movies in the Mission: Impossible series, we've long feared a world where (a) the government is the sole source of truth or (2) the truth is no longer ascertainable. It's a boogeyman greater than any monster, alien, or or serial killer. Because it's us. AI, billionaires, and the governments they control are pulling us all down a path toward the death and/or control of truth, and there's no way this ends well.